Sunday, September 30, 2007
Lusty Glaze
Kat: I don't know how they managed it, but Bryan and Debs arranged perfect weather for their beach party yesterday.Mark and Debbie arrived at ours on Friday night in time for a cracking curry made from the spices Debbie gave us on her last visit (I highly recommend the Garam Masala cookies).
The party wasn't till 5pm on Saturday but we drove over to Newquay after lunch to meet the Brighton contingent who were flying from Gatwick, and to have a wander round town. Lusty Glaze is a private beach with a couple of chalets and a small restaurant-bar at the east end of Newquay. The tide was out when we arrived and strolled from Lusty Glaze past Tolcarne, Great Western and Towan beaches to the harbour where the boats were high and dry. It was warm, sunny and just right for paddling. Newquay town itself is tacky and awful, full of sleazy nightclubs, fancy dress shops for stag and hen nights and even a lap-dancing club. We stayed long enough for a cuppa then headed back to Lusty Glaze.
First of all there was a Humanist ceremony during which Bryan and Debs made vows to each other and selected texts were read. Debs carried a bunch of felt flowers and each grandparent was given a flower by Rosie. Next Mat, Mercedes and I were asked to be godparents. Debs and Bryan had written a few words about our qualities - I was described as creative and Mat was an eccentric provider of home-brew! Each godparent got a flower too, then Rosie was named. Following an African tradition, Bryan and Debs gave her a taste of lemon, honey and wine to symbolise the bitter, sweet and enriching qualities that she can look forward to in life.
Then the partying started; the Lusty Glaze restaurant put on a banquet of BBQ followed by a pavlova mountain. As always there were too many people to catch up with and not enough time, but it was a grand do and everyone had great fun. Good party, guys!
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
The trials of Fi & Kevin's wedding
Mat: We've just got back from Fiona & Kevin's wedding in Newcastle, near Belfast. I've never been to Northern Ireland before, and we nearly didn't make it this time either. Kat and I got up at 5:30am for our flight on Saturday (the first time we've used an alarm clock this year); it was a bit foggy when we set off for Exeter airport but brightened up a lot, until we got to a mile from the airport itself where the fog descended and reduced visibility to about five metres. After a couple of hours they announced that our flight was cancelled, and since there is only one flight a day to Belfast we booked ourselves onto the Sunday afternoon flight - luckily the wedding wasn't until Monday. Not wanting to waste the day, we spent the morning shopping in Exeter and the evening at a great party we would have otherwise missed, so it wasn't all bad.On Sunday afternoon we headed back to Exeter and managed to take off this time. On arriving in Belfast we met up with Sophie, grabbed a quick bite and took the hour-long bus ride to Newcastle. We had called the B&B in advance and told them of our changed plans, and they assured us that someone would be there to let us in at 8:45pm.
By the time it got to 9:15pm we were bored of ringing the doorbell at the B&B, and were just about to look for somewhere else to stay when the owner arrived, very apologetic with a story about how he'd had several of his cows escape (pints of Guinness) from his field (the pub) and he'd had to round them up (buy another round). There must have been a lot of cows to round up, because he couldn't work out how to open either the front door or the door to our room.
I woke up the next day to find a dozen painful bites all over my body, and quickly realised that they weren't from Kat or Sophie. As the day progressed the bites swelled up massively, especially two on my forehead that made me look like I was growing horns. We thought at first it was just my bed, but Kat's bites are now becoming visible too, which is another for her I-Spy book of skin parasites (the others being scabies at uni, and a tick that we found suckling on her a few months ago).
After all these trials, the wedding itself was really wonderful - Fiona looked beautiful (so did Kevin), the food was excellent, the speeches were entertaining and we even had a surprise visit from Chris O'Donnell, much to the excitement of the Crossen family who are celebrity-spotters par excellence. We're really happy that we made it, and it was worth all the itching and scratching.